Olivia has finally gotten 99% of her gear together for the big New Zealand adventure. She picked up a neat little tool and I wanted to watch her try it for the first time. The Stein Mini Cassette Lockring Remover. This clever little tool takes the place of a conventional cassette removal tool setup, which […]

It’s been a fun week watching Olivia receive box after box of new gear in preparation for her bikepacking adventure in New Zealand. These boxes are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, and came while I was house sitting/taking care of this little guy: I’ve been helping Olivia sort out her pack list, and […]

To see Aaron’s initial review of the Surly Troll, it’s HERE. One year ago I built and reviewed a Surly Troll with a Rohloff Speedhub. Two chains, a few thousand miles and a couple of parts swaps later, the Troll is alive and shredding. Over the past year the Troll has performed […]

Back in 2008, I met a fellow bicycle tourist on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route named Scott Felter . I met a lot of people on that trip, and I didn’t recall much about our encounter until recently. My friend Cass Gilbert went up to Victoria, BC a few months ago to get some […]

I recently had a chance to install a unique part on a customer’s bike. It’s called a Philcentric bottom bracket, and the idea is that it turns any bike with vertical dropouts and a standard bottom bracket shell into one that can use a single speed or internally geared hub without using a chain tensioner. […]

I’ve been recently using a new wallet from the San Francisco based company Mr Smith Inc. It’s called the Jimi wallet, and it’s the best thing I’ve found so far as a minimalist front pocket cycling wallet. It stays closed securely and will open with a firm push at the latch. The wallet is water […]

Before I start this post, if you want to see how a vacation video looks when it’s done right, check out what my friend Mike made! We Like Japan I’ve been enjoying using my lightweight seat and bar bags in an effort to reduce my pack weight and volume, but the biggest part of the […]

Before I start today’s post, I thought I would ask you, the people who visit this site, what kind of topics would you like to see more of here? Less of? I’ve really appreciated all the comments and feedback over the last year, but I’m always looking to provide more interesting content. I recently made […]

Schwalbe has really dropped the ball on their current tire offerings for the expedition touring crowd. I just noticed that they have discontinued the Marathon Extreme tire in all sizes except for the 26×2.0” and 700x42mm. This means that Schwalbe has absolutely zero Marathon tires in the 26×2.25” size, which I believe is a huge […]